Witness To Crash Ensures Burial

The paperwork necessary to cremate Vitaliano ChM-avez-Suxo's body and send it to his home in Bolivia in a cardboard box had been completed.

The 51-year-old man's wife, children and mother in La Paz had resigned themselves that there would be no proper burial.

Then Chris McCabe, who didn't know ChM-avez-Suxo but witnessed the horrific crash that killed him a week ago, heard about the cremation.

Within 24 hours, he had arranged for $900 in pledges from members of the Community Christian Church of Plantation, several of whom had also witnessed the crash on Interstate 95 in Boca Raton, and tried to help.

ChM-avez-Suxo, who moved to Margate last year to work, was killed June 9, when he was struck by a driver suspected of drag racing on I-95 near Palmetto Park Road.

His death deeply troubled McCabe, and several church members, who were driving in a caravan that night after leaving a meeting of the Promise Keepers in Jacksonville.

"For me, the impact of what I saw -- seeing the car upside down and the blood -- it just impacted my heart," said McCabe, of Sunrise. "I never thought I'd get involved ... God put it on my heart to help this family."

McCabe persuaded a funeral home in Fort Lauderdale to donate a casket and collected enough money to send ChM-avez-Suxo's body to La Paz this weekend.

Thursday night at a viewing and service in Hialeah, McCabe and church elder Kent Mezger met some of the family members.

"We saw pictures of his family," said Mezger, of Sunrise. "That really brought it home."

A neighbor of ChM-avez-Suxo's niece, who had helped McCabe get in touch with the family, translated the memorial service for the five church members who attended. She also translated the family's thanks.

"We are very grateful to them," said Ayda ChM-avez, ChM-avez-Suxo's sister. "I don't even have the words."

ChM-avez-Suxo left behind a wife, two daughters and a son when he moved to Florida from Bolivia to work. He saved money on rent by living with two roommates, and sent to his family in Bolivia much of the money he earned as a valet parking attendant at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.

His mother, 83, along with his wife and children, were devastated by the loss and despondent when they heard they couldn't afford to ship his body home in a casket.

Ayda ChM-avez said her mother was inconsolable.

"How can they burn him? Do something. We need to see him one last time," ChM-avez remembers her mother saying.

ChM-avez-Suxo's wife even suggested getting the money from the person who struck her husband.

"I told her that would take too long," said ChM-avez-Suxo's niece, Elizabeth Ramirez of Coral Springs.

Florida Highway Patrol investigators are looking for Timothy J. Knight, 26, of Fort Lauderdale, who is accused of paying someone $100 at the scene of the accident to take him home before troopers arrived.

He is wanted on felony charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash with a death.

The crash, but particularly its cause, has upset witnesses. Mezger's 17-year-old son, Kevin, was the first to reach ChM-avez-Suxo's car, and never saw Knight.

"I think it's so messed up that he walked away from the accident," Kevin Mezger said. "How is that fair? It just doesn't seem right."

Kevin Mezger said he appreciated the chance to meet ChM-avez-Suxo's family.

"I'm glad I got to meet them because you can tell he was loved," he said.

Nancy L. OthM-sn can be reached at nothon@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6633.